


Through a Wormhole Darkly.

by steeleye



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Crossover, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-29 18:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1008715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wormhole blocking the door to Willow’s kitchen; however will she make dinner now? Mini-Buffy and Mini-Faith loose at Stargate Command? Egyptian gods, interstellar vampires and strange plants taking over the SGC, it's so bad that General O'Neill wants to resign.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Through a Wormhole Darkly.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Call of Cthulhu or Stargate SG1. I also do not claim ownership or authorship of any canon dialogue or written descriptions that may appear in this work of fiction. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Season 8, Stargate SG1 (loosely based on the episode, ‘Zero Hour’) and ‘Call of Cthulhu’. Post season 7 for BtVS (no comics).

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious English-English which is different to American English.

 **Timeline:** Season Eight for Stargate SG1, post Season Seven for BtVS.

 **Words:** Quite a few in five or so chapters, no one reads this so I’m not going to be any more precise than that.

Warnings: Always remember to duck...otherwise, nothing worse than you might see on a TV cop show.

Summary: A wormhole blocking the door to Willow’s kitchen; however will she make dinner now? Mini-Buffy and Mini-Faith loose at Stargate Command? Egyptian gods, interstellar vampires and strange plants taking over the SGC, it's so bad that General O'Neill wants to resign.

0=0=0=0

**The Dark Side of the Moon.**

“Are you sure this will work?” Lord Min frowned at his underling as he fidgeted nervously under the glare of his master.

“If I understand the workings of this technology correctly, Lord Min,” Tefen, a very minor Goa'uld in the service of the system lord, glossed over the fact that he really didn’t know what he was doing. “Very soon you will have both the key to defeating your fellow system lords and also a fine new host of extraordinary power.”

“Hmmm,” Min rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger, “I hope so…” the Great God of Sex and Lettuce glared at his minion, “for your sake!”

Tefen cowered away from his master in fear, the consequences of failure did not bear thinking about (Lord Min had been known to do some terrible things…with lettuce).

“This is Ancient technology,” Tefen started to explain, “who knows what the Ancients had in mind when they built it.” Tefen took his courage, what little there was of it, in his hands and made one last attempt at dissuading his master from his course of action. “Indeed, dread Lord, most Ancient technology appears to have been built on a whim and abandoned in much the same way. Might it not be wiser to try to achieve your goals by more conventional means?”

“ **NO!** ” Min’s voice echoed around the compartment making Tefen’s brain vibrate inside his head as it did so.

“As you wish my lord,” Tefen bowed low, casting a fearful eye at Min’s great whip and sacred phallus.

The lesser Goa’uld turned to face the machine and checked the targeting scanners. The subject was in clear view (if a little close to another human) all he had to do was to press the large red button positioned in the centre of the machine’s control panel to set the process in train. Reaching out with a trembling hand, Tefen pressed the button and stood back as he watched in fear; lights flashed and the chamber started to vibrate as a high pitched wailing noise filled his head. It only stopped when Tefen realised it was him who was making it.

0=0=0=0

**Willow and Kennedy’s apartment, Cleveland.**

Having spent most of the morning unconscious, Buffy only had a tenuous grasp on what the hell was going on. Looking once more at the portal-thing that Willow had magicked up in the doorway of her kitchen, she had an almost irresistible urge to poke it with the sword in her hand. In fact she had an almost irresistible urge to poke something; and if people didn’t start explaining things to her pretty damn quick there’d be some serious poking going on. Turning from the water-like surface of the portal, Buffy looked at Faith who stood beside her leaning on her own sword and smiling in that annoying way people do when they know something and you don’t.

“Faith,” Buffy rested her sword on her shoulder, “what the hell’s going on?”

“Oh, yeah,” Faith grinned at Buffy and appeared about to laugh; however, seeing the look of thunder on Buffy’s face she had second thoughts. “Yeah, hey you’ve been outta it for most of the time.”

“That’s why I’m asking,” Buffy pointed out pointedly. 

“Hey, look,” Faith held her hands up defensively, “don’t get all snarky with me, it's not my fault see?”

“Sorry Faith,” Buffy tried to calm herself down, “but I need to know.”

“You sure?” Faith asked without a hint of malicious humour, “I mean you’re not gonna like most of it.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Buffy replied through gritted teeth.

“Okay, if ya sure ya sure?” Faith shook her head sadly, “Like I say, ya probably not gonna like this, maybe you’d rather stay in blissful ignorance?”

“I want to know,” Buffy bit back on what she wanted to say, “and where did you pick up phrases like ‘blissful ignorance’?”

“Hey, I read stuff y’know?” Faith replied sounding a little hurt, “If ya go on like that I won’t tell ya.”

“I’m sorry Faith,” Buffy changed her tone of voice quickly and almost begged, “please tell me what’s been happening and I think its great that you’ve been trying to improve yourself…not that you weren’t perfect to begin with…”

Buffy stopped digging an enormous hole for herself and shut up; she looked hopefully at Faith.

“Okay then,” Faith took a deep breath, “if ya sure you wanna know?”

“FAITH!” Buffy squeaked as her hands began to shake with ill concealed rage.

“Yeah okay,” Faith smirked, “don’t get ya panties inna bunch.”

“Actually,” Buffy had calmed down almost as quickly as she’d lost ‘it’, “I don’t think I’m wearing panties,” Buffy wriggled about in the jeans she was wearing, which she noticed also weren’t hers. “Why aren’t I wearing any panties Faith?”

“Okay,” Faith took a deep breath again, “here goes; you remember the party last night?”

Buffy nodded her head, vague memories of a farewell party for some of the junior slayers drifted into her mind.

“Yeah well you got drunk,” Faith grinned a little, “then one of the brats put some magical lust dust on Giles that made you wanna jump his bones.”

“What!” Buffy almost shrieked but managed to keep her voice down; she did have a sort of dreamlike recollection of Giles taking her home to her apartment, once she’d got him inside she’d…

“Oh my god!” Buffy covered her mouth with her hand and almost dropped her sword.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head and smiled lasciviously, “way to go B; what is it with you and old guys?”

“Quick tell me what happened next?” Buffy demanded breathlessly, she looked across Willow’s living room to where Willow and Giles were in deep conversation about something…probably her.

“Nothing good,” Faith sighed sadly.

Buffy’s heart fell into her boots…which she now noticed she wasn’t wearing; no panties, no boots and someone else’s jeans, this couldn’t be good.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “Giles managed to escape and went to Willow who called everyone up for a Scooby meet.”

Thank god for that, Buffy sighed with relief at least she’d not done anything she’d regret. All she needed to do was apologise to Giles and everything would be fine. He’d understand it hadn’t been her fault…but why was she dressed in someone else’s clothes and why was Giles dressed in what looked like bath towels? 

“Anyway,” continued Faith, now that she’d started she seemed determined to finish, “when we were all here me an' Kennedy noticed something off with Vi. So we jumped her…”

“Vi wasn’t going to try and…you know,” Buffy found she couldn’t say what she thought Violet might try to do to Giles.

“Nah,” Faith ginned, “nothing like that…no she’d been taken over by that Amy Madison witch-bitch.”

“She’d what!?” Buffy glanced over to where Violet sat with Dawn and Kennedy; the younger slayer was sobbing quietly into a tissue as she told her friends about being attacked by zombies or something. Which might explain why she was dressed in camouflaged fatigues, or maybe it wouldn’t, whatever…

“Okay, so this is where it gets more confusing,” Faith explained.

“More confusing?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, I only got to hear about this later,” Faith waited as if expecting Buffy to say something.

“Go on.”

“Okay,” Faith took another deep breath, “This Amy-Vi woman took off and me an’ Harris took off after her. While we were gone, Dawn tried to seduce Giles…”

“She what!”

“Keep ya panties on,” Faith stopped and laughed, “sorry ya can’t ya not wearing any. Look, Red zapped her before she could do anything and then she zapped Kennedy coz she was acting all screwy…”

“Who, Willow?” Buffy frowned having lost the plot somewhere along the way.

“Nah, Kennie,” Faith continued with her tale of attempted seduction and magical zapping, “see everyone got covered in this lust dust stuff except Red…”

“That was lucky,” Buffy pointed out, suspicions starting to form in her mind.

“So while this was going on, me an’ Harris,” Faith explained, “caught the Amy-Vi chick and brought her back here. I musta got some dust on me coz as soon as I got back I started lusting after Giles! So Red zapped me as well.”

Buffy gave Faith a shocked look.

“Yeah I know,” Faith said in a pained voice, “me an’ the old guy? I mean he should be so lucky!”

“Hey,” Buffy felt she had to defend her old watcher, “he’s not that old and he’s quite handsome in a sort of middle aged, fatherly way.”

“Uh-huh,” Faith looked Buffy up and down, “I’m thinking, Harris didn’t get all the dust offa you.”

“Xander?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

“Yeah the only way to get the dust off was to wash it off,” Faith paused in her tale for a moment before continuing. “Y’see, Red couldn’t do it coz she might get infected, Giles wouldn’t do it coz he thought it wouldn’t be, y’know ‘proper’, so that sorta left Harris.”

“You mean…” Buffy turned pale as she realised what had happened and why she wasn’t wearing her own clothes; it also explained why she’d woken up soaking wet in Willow and Kennedy’s bedroom. 

In a way the truth was some how comforting.

“I mean,” Faith ploughed on, “it’s no skin off my nose, Harris has seen me naked before…well y’know he’s more than seen me naked,” Faith smiled at the memory and Buffy’s discomfort. “An’ Kennie, she didn’t seem to mind I suppose coz she’s gay or something. Vi wasn’t really there so inna way it didn’t happen to her, that just leaves you an’ Dawnie.”

“Oh,” Buffy felt a little numb, Xander had seen both her and her little sister naked?

“Don’t worry,” Faith added, “Harris wore rubber gloves.” Faith’s words didn’t do anything to ease Buffy’s mind.

“Hey!” Buffy pulled herself together, “Look Xander’s a good guy, I’m sure he didn’t do anything he shouldn’t…rubber gloves not withstanding.”

“Yeah?” Faith agreed, “You believe that if ya wanna, sister, but I know guys.”

“So-so,” Buffy thought it was time to get off the subject of what Xander might or might not have done…in the shower…with her and Dawn. “So what’s with the portal thing?”

“Coming to that,” Faith scratched her head as she collected her thoughts. “Red magicked it up to get the real Vi back. It musta worked coz Vi sounds like she’s back to normal, but it was real weird.”

“How so?” Buffy felt she was on safer ground talking about ‘normal’ weird stuff.

“Like, Vi went into the portal thing,” Faith explained the best she could, “an’ came right out again but heading in this direction…like…well it was weird.”

“Oh,” Buffy didn’t know what to say, so she went back to looking at the portal thing, “why’s it still here?”

“Red doesn’t know,” Faith joined Buffy in studying the portal and its water-like surface, “she’s tried to disperse it or whatever, but it just sorta stands there. I think she’s hoping it’ll go away by itself. I mean it better coz I could eat something right about now and all the food’s in the kitchen.”

Buffy stepped closer to the portal’s surface to see if she could catch a glimpse of what was on the other side.

“Don’t stand too close,” Giles called from the other side of the room.

For a moment, Buffy felt like she was a little girl again and her father was telling her not to get too close to the edge of the pool or something. As these thoughts went through her mind she felt invisible fingers catch hold of her and pull her into the portal. Crying out in surprise her free hand grasped for Faith who grabbed hold of her to try and prevent her being sucked into the portal.

Feeling like she was being stretched between two points separated by an impossibly long distance Buffy fell with Faith not far behind her. Lights flashed by her head as if she was on some sort of interstellar roller-coaster. Finally a bright light appeared in front of her and got closer and closer until…

0=0=0=0

Walking slowly into his office, General Jack O’Neill stood behind his desk for a moment and sighed resignedly. He removed a couple of folders from the top of his computer and sat down heavily in his chair. He contemplated for a moment just how crappy his life had become since he’d been promoted. Only today he’d locked the two delegates from Amran in a room and ordered the guard not to let them out until they started acting like adults. Dr Bill Lee had asked to be allowed to have an alien plant brought on base; which was probably a bad idea. He’d also had to order Carter not to go to some abandoned Anubis base that Ba’al hadn’t as yet discovered until SG3 could go along as back-up. Now Carter was sulking in her lab. Then, just to make his day perfect, he still had to choose the bunting and buffet for the President’s visit in five days time.

Opening up his computer, O’Neill stared at the blank screen for a moment before starting to type.

 _‘Dear General Hammond,’_ he typed, _‘wish you were here and I was not…’_

“Unauthorised off world activation!” Came the familiar call over the PA system; why did that always remind him of ‘Radar’ from off of MASH?

The sound of the alarm klaxon going off came as something of a relief, getting up, O’Neill made his way down to the gate control room.

“Walter?” O’Neill stood behind Sergeant Harriman and watched the gate-room through the armoured glass of the control room window.

“I’m-I’m not sure, sir,” Harriman replied uncertainly as he fiddled with his gate controls.

“Not sure?” O’Neill glanced down at Harriman’s computer screen, it didn’t make any sense to him either, “Well, that doesn’t sound good.” 

“I know, sir,” Harriman typed commands into his keyboard, “it just sort of activated, it’s nothing we’ve done at this end. We’re not drawing any unusual amounts of power and it doesn’t read like a normal off world gate activation. It’s like the power’s coming from somewhere else entirely.”

“Close the iris,” O’Neill ordered, “and get Colonel Carter down here.”

“The iris _is_ closed, sir!” Harriman reported as he gave up typing in pointless commands. “The event horizon has formed just this side of the iris,” 

Lifting the phone, Harriman put out the call for Colonel Carter to come to the gate-room. Watching the now stabilized wormhole, O’Neill was just about to call additional defence teams to the gate-room when he noticed two small figures tumble out of the wormhole and stumble to a halt at the top of the ramp leading to the gate.

0=0=0=0

Stumbling out onto a metal ramp, Buffy wondered why there were a lot of soldiers pointing guns at her. Also, why had Willow’s kitchen changed since the last time she’d visited; for a start it was a lot bigger and as she’d already noted, it was full of armed soldiers. Other strange things were starting to percolate through her mind; like why did everyone look so big and why did the sword she was trying to point in the general direction of the soldier boys feel heavier than it should?

On second thoughts pointing swords at guys armed with guns probably wasn’t a good idea; she rested the tip of the sword on the floor. Odd, she thought, the sword appeared to be bigger than it had been a few moments ago too, maybe that was why it felt heavier. But that was weird, why would her sword get bigger?

“Hey?” Buffy tried to take a step forward to ask what was going on; as she moved her jeans slipped from hips too narrow to hold them up and she tripped and fell as everyone got to see that, she wasn't in fact, wearing any panties.

0=0=0=0

Stumbling to a halt a couple of feet behind Buffy, Faith glanced behind herself just in time to see the portal vanish and be replaced by an oddly patterned metal wall. Turning once more she saw the soldiers and their guns. She saw the young girl that she some how knew had to be Buffy try to take a step and fall as her oversized jeans slipped to entangle her legs. Feeling the strap of her tank top start to slide from her shoulder and her jeans start to creep down her hips. Faith, dropped her sword, grabbed her jeans with one hand and tried to rearrange her top with the other. Looking down the front of her now rather roomy top, Faith sighed.

“Fuck!” Faith shook her head in a mixture of disgust and confusion, “Puberty again!”

0=0=0=0

**Min’s Mothership.**

“Well?” Lord Min looked expectantly at his underling, “Where is she?”

Scratching his head in confusion, Tefen looked at the space where the subject was supposed to have materialised and found it empty.

“Umm,” Tefen really had no idea what had gone wrong, “I’m not…”

Telling his lord and master that he didn’t know what had gone wrong was, likely as not, not such a good idea. Instead he turned towards the machine and fiddled with the controls as if he knew what he was doing, he didn’t, but Min wouldn’t know that.

“Well, my Lord,” Tefen started to explain slowly, “everything looks alright here.” 

The minor Goa’uld sucked his teeth as if he was thinking very hard, which indeed he was. His mind raced as it searched for an excuse for his failure to facilitate his lord’s wishes.

“It looks to me,” Tefen turned to face his master with renewed confidence, “as if something interrupted the matter stream.”

That was always a good one and probably true as something had obviously interrupted the matter stream because the target wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Of course Tefen wasn’t a hundred percent sure that the Ancient device used any technology even remotely similar to the Ring technology he was familiar with. Luckily, Min wouldn’t have a clue either.

“The matter stream, you say?” Min’s eyes glowed menacingly.

“Yes my lord,” Tefen replied with rising confidence.

“Deal with it!” Min gestured imperiously as he swept from the room.

Sighing a heart felt sigh of relief, Tefen found himself alone once more except for Nak’Aard, Min’s First Prime. The big Jaffa gave Tefen a look that told the Goa’uld that he, unlike his master, didn’t believe a word of Tefen’s explanation. Tefen shivered with renewed fear as Nak’Aard turned and followed his master from the chamber.

0=0=0=0

**The Infirmary, Stargate Command.**

“Here,” the lady doctor held the lolly pop out to Faith.

“Hey, look, I’m not five y’know,” she snagged the offered candy from the doctor’s hand anyway.

Unwrapping the brightly coloured sweet, Faith looked around the room; obviously they were in the hospital of some super-secret underground military base. Faith wasn’t too concerned about that, she didn’t have the same hang-ups that Buffy had about the military. In fact the one decent guy in her entire childhood had been ex-military, a marine or something, so she was willing to cut them some slack.

After all, just appearing in someone’s secret base was likely to make the nicest of people a little edgy. Okay, Buffy and herself had had guns pointed at them and there’d been a certain amount of shouting until this General guy had come to look at them and sent them to the infirmary. So, there were armed guards on the door but that was only to be expected and the doctor lady was okay.

Having given them both a thorough medical examination the doctor had then taken some blood samples. The soldiers had taken their clothes, which as they didn’t appear to fit any more wasn’t too much of a problem. Buffy and Faith were now dressed in ‘scrubs’ which were also just a little too big for them. The doctor lady said she’d get them some proper clothes as soon as the General guy decided what to do with them.

“Okay, Faith,” the doctor sat on the edge of the bed where Faith sat sucking her lolly pop, “what’s the problem with your friend there.”

“B?” Faith turned her head to see Buffy sitting on her bed hugging her knees, “B, has issues with the military and hospitals.”

“Issues?” Coaxed Dr Brightman.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head wisely, “this must be pretty close to ‘Buffy Hell’ for her. Give me another of those lolly pop things and I’ll see what I can do.”

Taking the sweet from the doctor, Faith grinned and walked over to Buffy’s bed.

0=0=0=0

**Lord Min’s mothership.**

Sighing heavily, Nak’Aard wondered what he was going to do. His master’s latest plan to conquer the galaxy was going the same way as all the others; right down the waste shoot. Not that Nak’Aard cared, as long as it didn’t interfere with his own plans of leading his fellow Jaffa in rebellion and on to eventual freedom. While the false god Min was distracted with his latest plan perhaps he could move his own plans forward a little.

Maybe, if he persuaded the coward Tefen to help distract and confuse Min some more it would all work to his advantage. While the ‘god’ was fusing over his technology he probably wouldn’t notice power slipping from his fingers. A smile spread slowly across Nak’Aard’s face, how he would laugh in the great god’s stupid face just before he killed him.

0=0=0=0

**Tefen’s Lab.**

Stunned at his own stupidity, Tefen sat on the floor of his lab and stared at the machine. Now he’d had time to completely translate the Ancient texts he fully realised the machine’s true purpose. Originally he’d thought that the machine was just some highly advanced form of a mater-transportation device; not dissimilar from the standard ring transporters he was familiar with.

In fact the machine had nothing to do with ‘mater-transportation’; the only thing it transported was information. It was, in fact, a very powerful scanning device coupled to a replication system capable of replicating or cloning living tissue. It could in fact ‘build’ exact copies of living creatures.

The Ancients were well aware of the existence of alternate realities; they were also aware of the dangers to explorers going from one reality to another. Specifically the way two identical subjects from different realities could not coexist in the same reality. The Ancients had, however, found a way around this. Instead of physically travelling between realities using something like the ‘Quantum Mirror’, which he knew the Tau’ri had an example of. The machine would simply scan a reality until the operator found a likely subject. This ‘subject’ would then be scanned and replicated or cloned in the operator’s reality. 

The clone would have all the memories and abilities of the original, but there was no risk of the subject ‘reacting’ to the reality it was now in… What happened next was obviously why the ancients had stopped using the machine; it would appear from Tefen’s study of the data base that the Ancients had a moral problem using the cloning process not foreseen my it’s inventor. This problem had never been solved so the Ancients had stopped using the machine.

What it boiled down to was this; somewhere on the planet below them were two physically superior Tau’ri women, who were now slightly shorter than they would normally be. One of them had been destined to provide Min with a new and superior host. While the other had just got caught up in the scanning beam and dragged into Tefen’s reality by mistake. Not even Min would let himself be transferred into the body of a child. These women were now trapped in a reality that was not their own and Tefen had no idea how to put everything right.

0=0=0=0

**Stargate Command.**

The dim outlines of a creature came into view as it removed itself from the torn and bloodied body of the SF; the thing started to drag its victim into a service tunnel. The blood-filled outlines of that barely seen shambling monster were already fading as it digested its meal. It was red and dripping; an immensity of pulsing, moving jelly. A scarlet blob with a myriad tentacle-like trunks that waved and writhed in continuous motion; there were suckers at the tips of each appendage which opened and closed with ghoulish lust.

The thing was bloated and obscene; a headless, faceless, eyeless bulk with a ravenous maw and titanic talons. The human blood on which it had just fed revealed the vile, normally invisible creature from the stars. It had been passing mindlessly through this solar system drifting on the solar winds on one of its endless searches for new pray when its journey had been interrupted.

Some unseen force had dragged the creature from its course and it had found itself in this underground chamber full of warm blooded prey. At first it had been angry at having its journey cut short but then it had sampled the creatures that scurried about this labyrinth of underground tunnels and chambers. The blood was like nothing it had tasted before. It filled the creature with new strength and warmed its cold inhuman soul. Perhaps it would stay awhile after all.

0=0=0=0

**The Infirmary, Stargate Command.**

Jumping up onto Buffy’s bed, Faith offered her the lolly-pop she’d just got off the doctor. Buffy shook her head, Faith shrugged in a ‘cool, more for me’ sort of way then frowned at her friend.

“We’ve got to get out of here, Faith,” Buffy stared like a trapped rabbit at the door leading to the corridor.

“And go where?” Faith sucked noisily on her candy, “It might have escaped your notice but we’re shorter than even you used to be.”

“Yeah,” Buffy was looking even more determined, “what about that? Obviously these soldier boys…”

“Airforce,” Faith interrupted.”

“What!?” Buffy looked at Faith irritably she didn’t like to be interrupted when she was just getting into an anti-military rant.

“Airforce,” Faith repeated, sucking hard on her lolly, “I asked.”

“Okay then, airforce,” Buffy snapped then paused and looked at Faith questioningly, “where was I?”

“About to tell me how the military are messin’ with stuff they know nothing about, same old, same old,” Faith sighed dramatically.

“You’re supposed to be supportive,” sulked Buffy, “and say stuff like, ‘yes Buffy we’ll have to kick their scrawny asses’!”

“Am I?” Faith removed the lolly-pop from her mouth making a loud slurping noise as she did so.

Buffy giggled just like the eleven year old girl she appeared to be.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**Stargate Command.**

Walking into the jungle that had been Dr Lee’s lab, General O’Neill saw Sergeant Siler and several of the other techs hacking at the lush green vegetation that threatened to take over the lab. Somehow O’Neill just knew it was going to be a bad day. Noticing movement amongst the leaves. O’Neill frowned as Dr Lee approached him out of the green hell.

“Well,” Dr Lee actually had a grin on his face, “the good news is it hasn’t eaten anybody yet!”

“Well, thank-you, Seymour,” O’Neill replied with more than a little sarcasm, Lee laughed and spread his hands as he looked around at the foliage.

“Yeah, obviously we underestimated its growth properties; it seems to respond really dramatically to any kind of visible light.”

Looking around, O’Neill reached behind a creeper and switched off the lights in the lab.

“Yeah, well, I thought of that too,” Lee explained defensively, “I just thought you might like to see it.”

Wishing he was somewhere else, O’Neill turned to go.

“Don’t worry,” Lee called after the departing general, “We’ll get it under control…Sir…”

Standing in the corridor, O’Neill realised he wasn’t sure how to get out of this area, all the green leaves made the place look like a jungle. Looking up and down the corridor, O’Neill chose a direction and made off into the undergrowth.

0=0=0=0

Sulking like a teenager, Colonel Carter sat in her seat in the conference room and wished she was almost anywhere but there. Instead of going to find Anubis’ secret base she’d been told to find out what had caused the arrival of the two little girls through the Stargate the previous day. Daniel had been given the task of questioning the girls; which meant the only team member to be having any real fun was Teal’c who’d accompanied SG 3 to the secret base.

Looking up, Carter saw Dr Brightman enter the conference room from the control room below; she’d recently taken over from Janet Fraser. Brightman was an attractive, competent woman; but she’d never fill the void left by Janet Fraser’s death. The doctor walked over to the table nodded good morning to Sam and Daniel and sat down across the table from them.

Moments later, Sam and Brightman stood up as O’Neill walked into the room; he waved his hand irritably signalling for them to sit down again. Taking a seat at the head of the table, O’Neill dry scrubbed his face and looked at his old team-mates and the new doctor and frantically tried to remember her name.

“Okay, people,” O’Neill began tiredly, “can someone please give me some good news about our guests…they’re not the vanguard of some new alien invasion, I hope…No naquaduh bombs hidden inside them?”

Taking this as her cue, Dr Brightman cleared her throat and opened the file that lay on the table in front of her.

“Doctor…?” O’Neill raised an eyebrow.

“Brightman, Sir,” Brightman didn’t even sound annoyed that the General couldn’t remember her name.

“Yes!” O’Neill gave a pained smile, “Doctor Brightman, what’ve you discovered?”

“Buffy and Faith…” Brightman began but was quickly interrupted by O’Neill.

“Buffy?” O’Neill shook his head, some parents could be so cruel.

“The blonde girl, sir,” explained Brightman.

“Yes, good,” O’Neill nodded his head, “that would make…” O’Neill stopped himself from stating the obvious, “...carry on doctor.”

“Thank-you sir,” Brightman rearranged her notes, “as I was saying, Buffy and Faith appear to be normal healthy girls. I’d put Buffy’s age at about eleven and Faith’s a little older maybe twelve or so. All tests indicate that they’re completely normal human children, although I’d like to wait for the DNA test results to come back before I sign off on that.”

Raising an eyebrow once more, O’Neill wondered if the doctor had anything more to add, as it happened she did.

“There are a few things I’ve noticed,” Brightman continued uncertainly, “it’s nothing to do with any medical condition, its more their state of mind…”

“Go on,” O’Neill gave the doctor a supportive look, “anything you might have noticed could be of help here.”

“Well, sir,” Brightman took a deep breath, “of the two of them, Faith seems to be taking whatever’s happen to them better than Buffy. Faith claims that Buffy has issues, sir.”

“Issues?” O’Neill looked up and down the table but saw only blank stares from Carter and Jackson.

“Yes sir,” Brightman continued, “Faith told me that Buffy has issues with the military and hospitals. In fact Faith described Buffy’s present predicament as, ‘Buffy Hell’, sir.”

“You think,” Carter looked up from studying her own notes, “they might have been in contact with the military?”

“It might be, Sir,” Brightman agreed, “it might explain the other things I’ve noticed about them.”

“Other things?” O’Neill just knew this was going to be bad.

“Yes sir,” Brightman nodded her head.

“Well don’t leave us in suspense, Doctor,” O’Neill could almost see the dark clouds of impending disaster gathering on the horizon.

“You understand, I’ve not had time to test the girls properly?” Brightman appeared to be enjoying torturing the general.

“Doctor!?” O’Neill gave the woman a warning look.

“Sorry, sir,” Brightman looked down at her file and gave a quick smile, “I’ve noticed that both girls seem unusually strong for their age and have heightened reaction times plus very good hearing. I suspect their eyesight is better than average too.”

“How strong?” O’Neill wanted to know.

“As I say,” Brightman shrugged, “I’ve not had time to test them properly so this is wild conjecture,” she looked from O’Neill to Sam and Carter, “I’d say that if they worked together they’d be able to overpower the guard on the infirmary door.”

“What!?” cried O’Neill in disbelief.

“But that’s impossible,” Carter shook her head in denial.

“Remember Hathor’s experiments trying to make a Hoc’tar?” Daniel spoke up from his seat next to Sam, he gave Brightman an earnest look, “You say this Buffy girl has issues, right?”

“Yes,” agreed Brightman, “with the military and hospitals in general.”

“Hmm,” Daniel tapped his pen on the table top.

“You gonna share, Daniel?” O’Neill asked pointedly.

“I was just thinking, Jack,” Daniel looked over the top of his glasses at his old friend, “all our mission reports have gone to Area 51 and the Pentagon and who knows where else.”

“Oh no!” O’Neill groaned as he realised where Daniel was going with this.

“Yes, Jack,” Daniel pointed his pen at O’Neill, “what if the old NID or The Trust got hold of that information and tried to clone their own Hoc’tars.”

“So how did they get here?” Carter wanted to know.

“Maybe they escaped from wherever they were using some technology that the Trust or whoever got hold of,” Daniel shrugged his shoulders.

“They do seem to be very,” Brightman hesitated trying to find the right word, “forthright, particularly Faith…in fact she can swear like one of the SF’s.”

“Whatever happened,” Daniel continued, “We need to find out where they came from and how they are like they are.”

“Which is why I put you in charge of questioning them,” O’Neill explained as if he was talking to a rather slow five year old, “Daniel?”

“Sorry, Jack, I meant to say,” Daniel glanced down at his notes, “Buffy claims to be from Los Angeles originally but spent most of her teenage years in a place called Sunnydale before moving to England a couple of years ago.”

“Sunnydale?” Sam queried, “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it.”

“Best I can work out,” Daniel looked at his fellow scientist, “it’s about where Santa Barbara is…in our world.”

“Oh great,” muttered O’Neill, “now we have alternate realities?”

“Maybe not, Jack,” Daniel smiled reassuringly at Jack, “it could just be a badly constructed or half remembered cover story.”

“And, what’s-her-name?” Jack glanced down at the doodles on the pad in front of him, they told him nothing.

“Faith?” Daniel asked and received a nod from Jack, “She says she’s from Boston then like Buffy she moved to England.”

“Okay,” Jack nodded to himself, “get those girls into an observation room and get their full story. I’ll want your report by tomorrow morning at the latest.”

“Um, Sir,” Doctor Brightman spoke up from her side of the table, “I’d just like to remind everyone that these are just little girls. They’re probably more victims than anything else.”

“Noted,” O’Neill turned from Brightman and looked Daniel straight in the eye, “Daniel, no thumb-screws, okay?”

“Oh, damn,” Daniel gave the impression of sounding disappointed, “and I’d just bought a new set.”

“Carter?” O’Neill sighed knowing that he’d understand less than five percent of whatever Carter said next…if he was lucky.

Sure enough after Carter had been speaking for about five seconds, O’Neill’s eyes glazed over and he started to think about other things. Walter was dealing with the bunting; there’d been some problem with getting red, white and blue. They could only get blue and white, they’d have to add the red separately. Walter was also dealing with the food for the buffet. Smiling for a moment, O’Neill considered the similar pronunciation of the girl’s name, Buffy and buffet. Then he remembered how cruel it was calling anybody something like ‘Buffy’…if he ever found who’d…

“Sir?” Carter’s voice penetrated O’Neill’s dark thoughts.

“Carter?”

“You were frowning, Sir.” Carter looked at O’Neill closely.

“Oh its nothing,” O’Neill reassured her, he gestured vaguely in her direction, “carry on.”

Once again, Carter’s voice started to drone on and O’Neill’s mind wandered off on another track. He needed to check on the Amran delegation. If they’d decided to act like adults he’d let them out, if not…another day locked in the same room together should do the trick. And another thing, he’d better check back on Lee’s blasted plant. Coming back to the here and now, O’Neill noticed that no one was speaking and everyone was looking at him as if waiting for him to say something.

“Good work, Carter,” he gave her an encouraging nod, “I knew you’d get to the bottom of it.”

“Sir?” Carter looked puzzled.

‘Damn!’ thought O’Neill, he’d said the wrong thing.

“Sorry, I meant to say,” the silence stretched as O’Neill desperately tried to think of what he’d meant to say. “I meant to say that I know you’ll get to the bottom of it eventually…I’ve every confidence in your abilities to…to…do…whatever it is you’re doing…hell!” O’Neil grasped for inspiration like a drowning man grasps for a life belt, “Maybe its one of those sun-spot-flare things…?”

“Damn it, sir,” Carter looked down at the table and shook her head, “how do you do it?”

“Do what?” O’Neill tried to remember the old rule; when you’ve got yourself into a hole, stop digging; he shut up and let Carter explain.

“You’ve done it again,” Carter looked up and shook her head this time in amazement.

“I have?” O’Neill just couldn’t help himself.

“Yes, Sir,” Carter said emphatically, “That’s one variable I’d not thought about…”

“You hadn’t?” O’Neill tried to sound as if he knew what he was talking about, “I’m surprised at you Carter.”

“It doesn’t explain everything but…” Carter stopped talking and looked admiringly at O’Neill, “Well, sir, once again you’ve been a great help, an inspiration even.”

“I have, haven’t I?” O’Neill replied smugly, it was time to bring this meeting to a close while he was still ahead of the game, “Dismiss, report back to me as soon as you uncover…well, anything.”

0=0=0=0

“They have blue jello!” Faith held the little plastic bowl of jello up for Buffy to see, “I haven’t had blue jello for…well, forever,” Faith shovelled more of the wobbly blue stuff into her mouth. “They don’t sell it in England…y’know they call jello, jelly and jelly jam? Weird!”

“It’s a weird choice for breakfast,” Buffy pulled a face.

“Whatever,” Faith shrugged and put the bowl and spoon down; to her it felt more like lunch time.

“We’ve got to get out of here, Faith,” Buffy spoke quietly so no one would overhear her.

“You on that again?” Faith sighed heavily, “Like I said before, and go where?”

“I don’t know,” Buffy replied desperately, “just out of here.”

“Okay,” Faith sighed once more as she selected a tuna sandwich from the pile of food in front of her, “so ya wanna escape,” she nodded towards the heavy set guard who watched them from across the room, “How are ya gonna overpower our friend there?”

“I’m the slayer,” Buffy replied as if this solved everything.

“You’re four foot tall!” Faith snapped back, “What ya gonna do, stand on a chair?”

“I’m so not four foot tall,” Buffy pouted, “I’m four-foot-four.”

“Yeah what about that,” Faith changed the subject, “you always been so…like...short?”

“Yeah,” Buffy admitted as she glanced over at their guard, “but I had a growth spurt when I was twelve.”

“More like a growth dribble,” Faith grinned around her sandwich.

“Look, I don’t care,” Buffy tried to steer the conversation back onto track, “we’ve got to get out of here.”

“Okay,” Faith tried a different way of dissuading Buffy from any rash action, “so we overpower guard-woman. Then we make it up to the surface,” Faith paused as she studied Buffy’s face for a moment; she’d never thought she’d hear herself say it but Buffy looked scared. “So we get out into the open and then what?”

“I don’t know,” Buffy sulked, “I’ll think of something…”

“While we’re surrounded by armed guards and dragged back down here or some place worse.” Faith put down the remains of her sandwich and reached across the table and took one of Buffy’s hands in her own. “Look,” she tried to sound confident, “its not so bad here and the US Airforce isn’t known for doing terrible experiments on little girls…”

“But we’re not little girls,” Buffy replied earnestly, “we’re slayers we have responsibilities.”

“And right now all the other slayers in the world are taking up the slack and looking for us,” Faith shook her head, sometimes Buffy was just so full of crap. “and right about now I bet Red’s cooking up some major mojo to get us home again. Unless she’s too busy screwing Kennie.”

“But…”

“Let’s sit back and enjoy this,” Faith let her actions fit her words and rested back in her seat, “we look like little girls, let’s act like little girls.”

“Okay,” Buffy didn’t sound convinced, “for a while. But if we’re still here tomorrow morning we totally get ourselves out of here, okay?”

“Okay,” Faith agreed as she rolled her eyes at Buffy.

Suddenly any feelings of amusement faded from Faith's mind as an overwhelming feeling of dread came over her and she shivered as if icy fingers were playing her spine like a xylophone.

“You feel that?” Faith asked.

“Yeah,” Buffy knew evil when she felt it, she also knew that these Airforce people were up to no good; what other reason for her feelings of dread could there be?

0=0=0=0

After the meeting O’Neill got a call to go and meet with Dr Lee again, it seemed that the ‘Plant Situation’ was getting out of hand. With a growing feeling of dread, O’Neill walked slowly towards Lee’s lab through corridors festooned with leafy green creepers. He found Lee waiting for him at a junction some distance from his lab.

“We have to close down the entire level and seal it off.” Lee informed him without preamble, “Not only does it have amazing growth properties, but its proving extremely difficult to eradicate.”

The two men walked around a corner to come upon Sergeant Silar who was playing a flame thrower over the vegetation; it didn’t appear to be having much effect. Doctor Lee sneezed.

“We think,” the white coated scientist continued, “its using the ventilation shafts to spread airborne spores.”

In the distance a klaxon hooted mournfully, without saying another word, O’Neill turned on his heel and walked off into the jungle.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**General O’Neill’s office Stargate Command.**

_‘I knew it wasn’t easy for you…’_ O’Neill typed, _‘but had I known what it was really like, I would have tried to be less of a pain in the ass. At least, I would have tried harder’._

Sitting back in his chair Jack reviewed what he had just written; nodding in agreement with himself he was just about to start typing again when the phone next to his computer rang. Giving an annoyed sigh he snatched the receiver from its cradle and put the instrument to his ear.

“O’Neill!” he snapped.

After listening to the voice on the other end of the phone for a moment he slammed down the receiver; saved his work and switched off his computer. Standing up he headed briskly for the door and out into the corridor beyond. It took him several minutes to reach the corridor on level twenty-seven where he found Doctor Brightman and a crowd of wary SF’s.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded as he approached; the doctor was crouching over something lying on the floor.

At O’Neill’s approach Dr Brightman stood up and stepped back so the general could see what was going on.

“Jeez!” O’Neill stopped in mid stride as he looked down and saw the dead airman for the first time, “What the hell happened here?”

“Not sure sir,” replied a Master Sergeant who appeared to be in charge, “when Sullivan didn’t check in we started a search. At first we thought he was just goofing off somewhere. Then when we still couldn’t find him I was about to alert the Duty Officer when one of our regular patrols checked this escape hatch and his body fell out into the corridor like he is now, sir.”

“Thank-you, Master Sergeant,” O’Neill looked from the NCO to the body and back again, “leave a couple of men here and then seal off both ends of the corridor.”

Nodding the senior NCO turned away to organise his men while Jack looked expectantly at the doctor, who removed her latex gloves.

“Well?” Jack raised a questioning eyebrow.

“He’s dead sir,” Brightman replied stating the obvious but it had to be said officially.

“Well, duh!” Jack replied in a very un-general-like way before adding, “Like how?”

“Of course I’ve not done an autopsy…” Brightman hesitated.

“Give it your best shot, Doc,” Jack encouraged with a minimum of sarcasm.

“Well sir,” Brightman appeared to be reluctant to say anything, “if I was forced to make a guess I’d say it was exsanguination.

“Ex-what-a-ray-tion?” Jack stared hard at the woman as if by doing so he could get her to talk sense, much to his surprise it worked.

“It would appear that Airman Sullivan has had all the blood drained from his body,” Brightman looked down at the body sadly. “Of course I’ll have to do an autopsy to be sure…”

“Yeah, right,” Jack interrupted her, “but how? There’s no blood around here; if I remember correctly the human body contains quite a lot of blood and when it’s splashed about it tends to make a mess.” 

Looking up and down the corridor, Jack noted the complete absence of large amounts (or indeed small amounts) of blood.

“Oh,” Brightman looked at Jack pityingly, “this wasn’t an accident, see…” Brightman knelt down over the body and pointed to one of several bit marks on the airman’s exposed skin, “I’d say he was attacked, then dragged in here and drained.”

“Damn it,” Jack shook his head, this was all he needed, “so there’s some sort of creature on base?”

“From the number of bite marks,” Brightman explained, “I’d say a lot more than one.”

“Crap!” Jack signalled for the Master Sergeant to come over to him.

“Sir?”

“Contact the Officer of the Day and have him seal the base, we have an incursion,” Jack wondered how anything could have got on base, then a thought struck him, “damn, the girls.” Turning to Brightman he gave his instructions, “Do your autopsy or whatever you have to do…”

“Yes sir,” Brightman kept a completely straight face, “it’s called an autopsy.”

“Whatever,” Jack started to walk off down the corridor, he looked over his shoulder at the bemused doctor, “I want your preliminary report in an hour.”

Now where were they keeping those two girls?

0=0=0=0

**Observation Room One, Stargate Command.**

Starring across the table at the girls, Daniel Jackson got the distinct feeling he was being studied almost as closely by the girl’s as he was studying them. Correction, the girl called Buffy appeared to be watching him with an almost predatory intensity; Faith on the other hand seemed to be doing something to a doll which involved a pair of scissors and some coloured marker pens. Looking up at the observation window he saw Sam and gave her a helpless shrug.

“You’re cute.” Buffy looked at Daniel, she appeared to be almost licking her lips with desire.

“You’re eleven,” Faith pointed out not looking up from her work, “what is it with you and old guys?”

“Look I’m twenty-three,” Buffy complained.

This time Faith did glance up, “Ya look about nine…” she grinned, “...shrimp.”

“Okay so I’ll have to wait a few years,” Buffy sulked, “but I can still look.”

“Yeah sure,” Faith bent back to whatever it is she was doing, “and people think I’m the slut.”

“I’m so not a slut!” Buffy replied angrily, “Can I help it if I’m a red blooded woman with natural desires?”

“That would explain what Angel saw in you.” Faith was making the finishing touches to the unfortunate doll. “And honestly any urges you might be having now are way un-natural…” Faith grinned and held up the doll proudly, “How’d ya like it?” she waved the doll under Daniel’s nose, “Punk-slut-Barbie!”

The doll had had most of its hair removed leaving only a Mohican style ridge. Its clothes had been altered to a more punk-like style and its remaining hair had been roughly coloured with marker pens.

“I don’t think it’ll catch on,” Daniel tried not to look at Sam who appeared to be having hysterics up in the control room; Daniel tried to steer the conversation back onto less controversial subjects. “So, Faith, how old are you?”

“Twenty-four,” Faith put down the doll and gave Daniel all her attention, “although it doesn’t look like it right now.” She looked down at the white blouse and blue jeans she was wearing. “I’m about a month older than ‘B’ here.”

“Gotta say,” Daniel gave the girl a smile, “you both look very young for your age.”

“What can I say?” Faith shrugged her shoulders and leaned back in her chair, “I look after m’self.”

“So how do you explain that?” Daniel was becoming convinced that these girls must have been victims of abuse or some sort of experimentation, but first he needed to know how they had come to arrive through the Stargate.

“I musta shrunk,” Faith replied simply.

“Look,” Buffy gave a long suffering sigh, “you won’t believe the truth even if we told you.”

“Try me,” Daniel said with all the sincerity he could muster, “I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff over the years.”

“Okay, look,” Buffy took a deep breath, “my friend Willow…”

“Wicked, powerful, lesbian-witch-chick,” Faith explained which got her a sharp look from Buffy.

“As I was saying,” Buffy took another deep breath, “she had to do a spell to get one of our friends back from another dimension and back into her right body.”

“In-ter-di-men-sional-portal,” Faith clarified with a smug look.

“That’s it,” Buffy frowned at Faith before she continued, “anyway, once we got Vi back and got rid of Amy…”

“Vi? Amy?” Daniel looked from one girl to the other.

“Vi’s like us…” Faith began.

“What eleven?” Daniel asked innocently.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “she’s, what,” Faith looked at Buffy for confirmation, “seventeen or eighteen now?” Faith shrugged, “Amy’s a witch who’d stolen Vi’s body.”

“A witch like,” Daniel glanced at the notes he’d been taking, “your friend Willow?”

“Nah,” Faith gave Daniel the sort of look you give really stupid people when they’re being ‘really’ stupid, “Red’s cool, Amy’s a bitch-witch.”

“Red?” Daniel asked confused.

“Willow!” chorused the girls.

“She has red hair,” Buffy explained as she glanced at Faith, “and as you might have noticed my ‘friend’ here can’t call anyone by, like, their proper names.”

Faith gave Buffy a hurt look, “It shows affection,” she explained.

“Since when have you known words like ‘affection’, let alone ‘Inter-dimensional-portal’?” Buffy turned in her seat to confront Faith, “And didn’t you try to kill her once?”

“Hey!” Faith looked away a little guiltily, “We worked it out, we’re cool now.”

“Ladies,” Daniel called trying to get the girls back on topic, “I think we’re getting away from what’s important here…”

“Look,” Buffy turned to smile at Daniel, “we’re just trying to give you some of the back story.”

“Okay,” Daniel consulted his notes, “so, your friend Willow formed some sort of portal…where exactly.”

“In the doorway to her kitchen…” Buffy noticed the incredulous look on Daniel’s face, “Yeah, I know what you’re going to say…”

“You do?” Daniel turned all his attention on Buffy.

“Yeah,” Buffy’s smile got wider, “you’re going to ask me why she did the portal-thing in the kitchen doorway…”

“Yeah,” Faith butted in, “like how were we supposed to get to the tea an’ cookies?”

“Right,” Buffy nodded her head emphatically, “and I’d not even had any breakfast!”

“Daniel,” Sam’s voice came over the intercom from the control room, “you might want to come up here and see this.”

“Yeah, right Sam,” Daniel looked down at his notes and put his hand to his forehead as if he was just starting to get a headache; he looked back at the girls, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

0=0=0=0

Moments later Daniel was standing in the control room, Sam was looking up at him from her bank on monitors with a slight smile on her face. She’d not been having any luck working out how the girls had appeared through the Stargate, plus she was waiting for some information to be sent to her from UCLA. So, she’d decided to come down to the observation room and do some scans on their visitors while Daniel was talking to them.

“I thought I’d get you out of there before you went insane,” she smiled, “I also thought you might want to see these.”

Lines of figures and bar charts appeared on the screens as Sam typed in commands.

“I hate to sound like Jack but…huh?” Daniel took a seat next to Sam’s.

“Okay,” Sam started to point at the figures on the screen, “as you know over the years we’ve picked up some pretty useful scanning technology. Nothing as good as the stuff the Asgard use but in controlled conditions like this,” she gestured to the observation room, “better than anything we might have had even in ten years time.”

“So?” Daniel adjusted his glasses, it was best to let Sam come to the point in her own time.

“While you’ve been talking to our visitors here,” once again Sam made a gesture to indicate Buffy and Faith, “I’ve been taking readings and…”

Just then the klaxon went off and red emergency lights stared to flash.

“What the hell?” Daniel and Sam looked up and into the observation room, the door was open and the room was empty.

0=0=0=0

Watching as Daniel got up and left the room, Buffy and Faith glared at each other.

“I wish you’d let me do the talking,” Buffy folded her arms across her chest.

“But you never give all the story,” Faith pointed out.

“Yeah and I don’t give out all our secrets!” Buffy snapped back.

“Yeah, and…” Faith stopped what she was saying as the familiar feeling of nearby evil spread across her body from the pit of her stomach, “You feel that?”

“Yeah,” Buffy breathed quietly, “like a vamp but not, if you know what I mean.”

Both girls got up from their chairs and looked around the room, no danger jumped out at them.

“Nothing in here,” Buffy pointed out.

“I get that too,” Faith walked towards the door and tried the handle, “locked.”

Looking up at the big glass window set into one wall of the room, Buffy could see Daniel Jackson and the blonde airforce officer. They were huddled over what looked like a computer screen and weren’t paying her or Faith any attention.

“Time to go,” Buffy hurried over to join Faith by the door, “we find out what these soldier-boys are hiding, then we’re out of here, okay?”

“Yeah,” Faith sighed, Buffy was back on her ‘all military are pricks’ kick, “I suppose.”

Faith took a firm grip on the door handle and twisted and pulled at the same time. Although there was the sound of metal on metal as the workings of the lock where slowly bent out of shape the door remained shut.

“Fuck this being small,” Faith cursed before turning to Buffy, “give me a hand here, will ya?”

With both superstrong preteen girls on the case the lock gave up the struggle and the door burst open to reveal an armed guard pointing his pistol at the girls.

“Damn, didn’t expect that,” whispered Faith.

“Hey mister!” Buffy smiled brightly at the guard, “You’re not going to shoot two defenceless little girls are you?”

The guard hesitated for an instant which was all the time Buffy needed. Stepping forward she punched the guard in the stomach as hard as she could. The guard doubled over making a loud *OOPH!* sound but didn’t go down.

“You hit like a girl,” Faith stepped forward and rammed the guards head into the wall, the airman collapsed unconscious on the floor, “Which way?” Faith asked.

“This way,” Buffy pointed down the corridor.

The girls ran off in opposite directions.

0=0=0=0

**The corridor outside the room containing the Amran Delegation.**

Fighting his way through the jungle that had once been a corridor, Jack took a Zat off a SF, the man stood back and drew his regulation sidearm.

“WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON?” Jack shouted over the noise of the klaxon, “AND SOME ONE…switch that off,” he said in more normal tones as the klaxon fell silent; Jack looked at the senior man present, “Report,” he ordered.

“Sir,” the SF pointed his pistol nervously at the door leading to the Amran delegation’s quarters, “less than five minutes ago I heard screaming and shouting coming from the room, sir. At first I thought it was just the Amran’s yelling at each other again, then it went all quiet except for…”

“Go on airman,” Jack encouraged.

“Sir,” the man swallowed before continuing, “it was like someone was laughing, sir.”

“Laughing?” Jack activated his Zat and took a step closer to the door; he tried to look into the room through the pane of glass set into the door, but it appeared to be covered in blood. “Get it open.”

The guard stepped forward and took the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, Jack signalled the man to step back as he took hold of the door handle.

“Follow me in,” he whispered as he opened the door and burst into the room.

The SF’s piled up behind him as Jack came to a sudden halt just inside the door.

“Crap,” Jack breathed quietly as he looked around the room.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**The Morgue, Stargate Command.**

It was standing room only in the recently completed morgue at Stargate Command; unless, of course, you were a body in which case you got to lie down. Three naked corpses lay on the autopsy tables; the SF who’d been killed earlier in the day and the recently deceased Amran delegation. Also present (in a living capacity) were General O’Neill, Dr Brightman, Walter Harriman, Lt Lynn Willis (the Duty Officer) and a whole pack of heavily armed SF’s.

“Well?” O’Neill demanded testily, the death of the Amran delegation, while tragic was going to generate a mountain of paperwork similar in size to Cheyenne Mountain itself.

“Cause of death was exsanguination,” Dr Brightman began, “as you can see each of the bodies is covered in a multiple bite marks.” 

The doctor helpfully pointed out the bite marks just in case the general hadn’t noticed them or if anyone wasn’t sure what a bite mark looked like.

“I believe,” continued the doctor, “that each of the victims was attacked by a creature or creatures that sucked the body dry of blood.”

“You don’t say,” O’Neill rubbed his forehead, he could feel a headache coming on, sighing heavily he asked, “Any idea what did this?”

“I can’t think of any Earth creature that attacks in this way,” the doctor shrugged under her white coat, “at a guess I’d say something came through the Stargate undetected.”

“Well thank-you, doctor,” O’Neill started to push his way through the crowd towards the door. “Lt Willis?”

“Sir!” The young woman appeared at the general’s side.

“Increase patrols in groups of no less than three,” O’Neill wondered if there was anything else he needed to say that wasn’t stating the obvious, he said it anyway, “tell everyone to be careful, we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

“Sir,” Willis tried to salute, thought better of it, then squeezed her way out of the morgue, about half the SF’s went with her.

“Wal…” O’Neill shut his mouth with a snap as Sergeant Harriman appeared next to him.

“Sir,” Harriman consulted his clip board, “all off-world teams have been told to use the Alpha Site, the Pentagon has been informed of our situation, the base is locked down and we still can’t get any red bunting.”

“What!?” O’Neill looked at Harriman as if he’d gone insane.

“For the Presidents visit, Sir,” Harriman explained, “we’ll have to go with blue and white, Sir.”

“That’s just…” for a moment O’Neill was lost for words, could anything else go wrong today?

“Sir!”

Looking away from Harriman, O’Neill saw Carter and Daniel push their way into the room.

“Where have you two been?” O’Neill demanded, “I called you hours ago,” O’Neill glanced at his watch, “well, at least five minutes ago anyway.”

“Sorry, Sir,” Carter looked apologetically up at O’Neill, “but we’ve sorta got a situation…” Looking around Carter seemed to notice where she was for the first time plus the unusual number of dead bodies, “Um, what’s going on, Sir?”

“Jack,” Daniel pushed himself to the front of the crowd, “this is urgent, you know…” Daniel stopped talking as his eyes fell on the bodies, “Oh!” he said finally.

“I’m guessing your ‘situation’ isn’t the same as my ‘situation’,” O’Neill raised an eyebrow at Daniel.

“Um,” Daniel adjusted his glasses before speaking, “probably not.”

“Probably?” quieried O’Neill.

“Um, yes Sir,” Carter stepped up, “you-you know those two girls?”

“The ones who came through the Stargate?” O’Neill turned a withering stare on Carter, she duly ‘withered’.

“Jack,” Daniel took over from the withered Carter, “they sort of escaped.”

“Sort of escaped?” O’Neill turned his shrivelling gaze onto Daniel; who not actually being in the military resisted the urge to climb into a hole and hide. “How can two little girls escape? The important words here being, ‘little’ and ‘girls’.”

“Sir, they broke open the door,” Carter had recovered from her earlier withering and found her voice, “over powered the guard and ran off.”

“Broke open the door?” O’Neill asked incredulously, “Overpowered the guard?”

“I did say they were unusually strong,” Brightman added helpfully.

O’Neill turned his gaze on the doctor, who (protected by her white coat) refused to wither or indeed shrivel.

“Wal…!” once again O’Neill was interrupted in mid yell.

“Already on it, Sir!” Walter Harriman picked up the phone situated on the wall of the morgue and started to talk.

“Right!” O’Neill looked around helplessly, he’d much rather be hunting down whatever was killing his people than being the one in charge.

Looking down at the Zat in his hand, O’Neill thought, ‘What the hell?’

“Daniel, Carter, find those girls,” he looked around at the crowd of SF’s, “the rest of you follow me.”

Leading his men forward, O’Neill walked out into the corridor only to be brought up short by a wall of vegetation.

“Will someone ‘do’ something about this stuff,” he cried despairingly.

0=0=0=0

**A Cleaner’s Closet, Stargate Command.**

“Get offa me!” Faith elbowed Buffy in the chest as they fought for space in the broom closet.

After several moments of whispered threats and pulling and pushing the two girls sorted themselves out and stood facing each other in the dark, cramped confines of the closet. They’d had to duck in there when they’d heard soldiers running along the corridor towards their location.

“We need weapons,” Buffy pointed out; Faith picked up a mop and held it in front of Buffy.

“We’re not going to clean it,” Buffy explain, “we want to kill it!”

“The handle,” hinted Faith as she rolled her eyes.

“Oh, yeah,” Buffy grinned in the dark, “I get it.”

Taking the mop from Faith, Buffy steadied the head against the wall. Next she struck the handle about a third of the way down from the head with the palm of her hand. The wood of the handle cracked and splintered but didn’t break.

“OW!” Buffy shook her hand, “That hurt!”

“Remember,” Faith found herself a brush, wedging the head between two pipes, she pulled, “we’re not as strong as we used to be.”

“Life sucks,” Buffy finished breaking off the end of her mop.

“But its better than the alternative,” there was a snap as Faith’s brush broke, “and yeah,” she added before Buffy could say anything, “I know words like ‘alternative’, I told ya, I’ve been improving myself.”

“Wasn’t going to say a word,” Buffy lied.

The two girls held up their pointy sticks and grinned at each other, a blood thirsty glint in their eyes. Listening at the door, Buffy heard nothing, no movement or voices, turning the door handle she pushed the door open a few inches and looked out though the crack, the corridor appeared to be deserted.

“Come on,” she whispered as she stepped out into the corridor.

“Which way?” Faith looked up and down the passageway.

The passageway was grey, with a few signs and a red flashing light that cast eerie shadows across the wall and floors. There were doors every few yards and coloured lines painted on the floor like some sort of railroad track. Faith guessed that you probably followed a different colour to different locations.

“Don’t know,” Buffy clutched her spear tightly in a small fist, “I know!”

“What?” Faith looked down at her companion.

“It likes to suck the blood from people…” Buffy smiled brightly up at Faith.

“I know where you’re goin’ with this, B, an’ I’m thinking it’s not a real good idea.”

“Why not?” Buffy pouted and Faith couldn’t help but smile at the expression on Buffy’s face.

“Oh, well,” Faith sighed, “I ain’t got nothin’ better to do, let’s go…”

0=0=0=0

They’d walked along what felt like miles of deserted corridor without meeting man or beast and were just beginning to think this was a bust when Faith stopped.

“D’you hear that?” Faith stopped as she strained her ears.

“Hear what?” Buffy stopped and took a tighter hold on her ersatz spear.

“Like a sorta shuffling sound,” Faith turned to scan the corridor behind them, “an’ like someone giggling…”

“Yeah,” Buffy squinted along the corridor, “I can hear it too…I think its getting closer.”

Closing her eyes and concentrating like Giles had taught her all those years ago, Buffy tried to pick up on whatever was in the corridor with them. She was just getting a fix on whatever it was when Faith broke her concentration and cried out.

“There!” Faith pointed; Buffy’s eyes flew open to look.

“Where?” Buffy could see nothing but she had a very strong feeling that something was close by.

“There it is again,” called Faith pointing urgently down the corridor, “I think you can only see it when it moves.”

Following Faith’s pointing finger, Buffy saw something, an indistinct shape that distorted objects as it either passed over or in front of them. When it stopped it quickly faded from even slayer eyesight.

“Come on,” Faith grinned wolfishly down at Buffy, “let’s kill the fucker!”

“Typical Faith plan,” muttered Buffy as she moved on down the corridor, “hack, slash and slay!”

At first the creature remained motionless but then it realised that the two short humans coming towards it could sense it. Starting to move the Star Vampire prepared to attack, individually these two humans might be small, but together they’d make a satisfying meal.

Jabbing with her spear Faith was gratified to hear the see-through monster scream in pain. Pulling back for a moment she let Buffy through to stab at the creature in turn. Together the two diminutive slayers stabbed at the monster as it retreated before them. Just as she thought they’d got the monster on the run, Faith heard, more than saw, something slice through the air heading towards Buffy.

Just as she was about to drive her spear home once more, something seemed to catch Buffy and send her flying across the corridor. She slammed into the wall her white blouse ripped to shreds and blood oozing from three deep gashes in her chest and stomach. Snarling incoherently, Faith attacked the monster with renewed ferocity driving it back down the corridor towards what looked like a service tunnel. No way was she going to let it escape; jabbing with her spear she could feel the end of her weapon enter the beast’s body. But there was no blood only the strange, insane screaming and tittering that came from whatever the creature used as a mouth.

Raising her broom handle in both hands, in preparation to driving it through the creature into where she was sure its heart lay; something swept Faith’s feet from under her and she fell heavily onto floor. Her broom-spear rolled away out of her reach as her hands came in contact with something cold and so incredibly disgusting that even her slayer senses couldn’t deal with it.

Screaming in terror, something bit into Faith’s arm, she watched in fascinated horror as whatever had latched onto her arm started to become visible as it sucked her blood. Frantically she fought her way free of the trunk-like sucker that had attached itself to her arm. Screaming in pain as she tore the teeth that appeared to surround the end of the sucker, she kicked at the creature and tried to scramble across the floor to where her spear lay.

Just as her fingers closed around the comforting hardness of the broom handle, something grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled. Yanked across the floor, Faith found herself struggling with a multitude of tentacle like mouths that attempted to latch onto her and suck her dry. Screaming in pain as each mouth clamped down on her arms or legs, Faith fought on punching and clawing at the semi-visible, grotesque creature that tittered and giggled as it sucked. 

Turning redder by the second the Star Vampire settled down to feed as it fought off the weak struggles of its latest victim. The other human it had disabled could be fed on later there was no rush. Just as its victim was drifting into unconsciousness the vampire heard a load bang and felt something slam into its body. Stunned it turned to face the new threat.

0=0=0=0

Running down the corridor, O’Neill heard the SF’s pistol go off, the bullet hit the red thing that was almost completely covering the girl’s weakly struggling body. Apart from making the vile creature shudder it didn’t seem to have much effect. Raising his Zat, O’Neill fired. The beam hit the creature squally making it shake and cry out in pain, however, it kept moving. He had to stop himself from firing again for fear of killing the girl as well as the creature.

Another SF stopped beside him and aimed a controlled burst from an MP5 at the creature. The bullets appeared to be absorbed into the creature but this time it started to move away from the girl, O’Neill raised his Zat to fire again. Now the creature was completely disconnected from the girl it was starting to fade from sight. A sustained volley of shots came from the SF’s guns as they drove the creature back; O’Neill fired again but when the smoke cleared there was no sign of the creature.

“Damn!” he cursed as he ran to kneel over the dark haired girl, much to his surprise she opened her eyes and smiled weakly at him.

“Did we get the fucker?” she asked weakly.

“Nah,” O’Neill tried to sound reassuring as he stroked the girl’s hair from her face, “but we sure made it hurt.”

“Another body here, Sir!” called an SF from further down the corridor.

Moments later Dr Brightman and her medical team arrived and started to work on the girls. Standing up to get out of the way of the medics, O’Neill heard Carter and Daniel arrive, they were both clutching the weapons the Tok’ra had given them which could make invisible creatures visible.

“I thought we might need these,” Carter panted as she came to a halt, “we saw everything on the CCTV.”

“What was that thing?” O’Neil deactivated his Zat before giving Carter his full attention.

“Don’t know, Sir,” Carter let her weapon hang at her side, “it’s like nothing we’ve seen before.”

“Whatever it is, Sam,” O’Neill spoke quietly so only Carter could hear, “I want it dead…I’m calling Teal’c back from the Alpha site.”

“But, Sir!” Carter almost ran after O’Neill as he strode off down the corridor, “That’ll be breaking quarantine!”

“Not if we’re waiting for it with those things,” O’Neill pointed to the weapon in Carter’s hand. “That thing’s on my base and I want it gone.”

Just then all the lights went off.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Stargate Command.**

“We paid the electric bill,” General O’Neill announced as he walked along the corridor towards Dr Lee, “I checked.”

“The plant is in the walls,” Doctor Lee explained earnestly, “its interfering with the power and communication lines.”

“There’s no light in the walls,” O’Neill pointed out reasonably.

“I know,” sighed Lee, “but as long as any part of it is exposed to light its seems it can feed the unexposed parts.” Lee took a deep breath, “I’m recommending that we keep the entire base on minimal emergency lighting just until we get the problem under control.”

“How long is that going to be?” O’Neill had visions of having to abandon the entire SGC to the plant.

“Well, that’s a little hard to say,” Lee had hoped that the General wouldn’t ask this question, “because first we have to figure out how to get the problem under control.”

Lee sneezed as O’Neill turned his back and headed off in the direction of the control room.

0=0=0=0

**Gate Control Room, Stargate Command.**

“Where are we?” O’Neill sounded tired as he walked slowly over to Sergeant Harriman’s work station.

“The dialing computer’s off-line,” began Harriman.

“There must be a circuit board that got fried,” Sgt Silar’s voice came from out of the darkness behind O’Neill, “when we tried to restore power to the system.”

“Incoming wormholes will connect,” Harriman explained, “and we can still receive radio comms but…”

“The Iris?” O’Neill asked.

“Manual control, sir,” Harriman replied.

“What about dialling the gate manually?” O’Neill wanted to know.

“Um, that’s a problem, sir,” Silar called from his position half way under a control consul. “The inner ring seems to be locked. We tried disconnecting the control interface but…”

“There was a gate diagnostic running when the power went down,” Harriman took up the story again, “it could be something to do with that, sir.”

“Fine,” O’Neill sighed heavily, “find Colonel Carter see if she can get this thing up and running again.”

“Yes, Sir,” Harriman got up from his seat and walked off into the darkness to start his quest for Colonel Carter.

0=0=0=0

**The Infirmary, Stargate Command.**

“Doctor Brightman?” O’Neill walked into the infirmary, paused and looked around, the lights were on and for a moment he thought that Silar had got the power back on; only then did he remember that the medical facilities had their own back-up power system.

“Sir?” Brightman appeared silently by O’Neill’s side making him jump a little.

“How are our guests?” O’Neill asked recovering quickly.

“Surprisingly well,” Brightman gestured for the general to follow her, “considering their injuries they’re both recovering very quickly.”

Walking over to the far end of the infirmary’s small ward, O’Neill saw the two girls sitting up in bed looking bored with IV lines in their arms and bandages covering their wounds.

“How…?” O’Neill turned to Brightman for an explanation, the last time he’d seen both girls they’d looked as if they’d been in a train wreck.

“Well,” Brightman smiled then put her hand on O’Neill’s arm and guided him down to the other end of the ward, “apart from un-usual strength, reflexes, hearing, eyesight and god knows what else,” Brightman pursed her lips and shook her head. “It also appears they have accelerated powers of healing.”

0=0=0=0

“Their talking about us,” Buffy whispered to Faith who was lying in the next bed.

“Yeah,” Faith admitted glancing over to the doctor and the general, “looks like…maybe you were right,” Faith admitted, “we’ve gotta get outta here.”

“Yeah,” Buffy pulled the IV from her arm and pushed back the sheets that covered her legs, “let’s get gone.”

“Yeah, why not,” Faith followed Buffy’s example.

The two girls swung their legs over the sides of their beds and jumped down onto the floor, Buffy stumbled a little as her feet hit the cold floor.

“You okay?” Faith was suddenly at her side a look of concern on her face.

“I’ll be okay,” Buffy insisted.

“Hey, B,” Faith still looked concerned and still hadn’t let go of Buffy’s arm, “that critter got you worse than it got me maybe…”

“No!” Buffy said firmly, “We’ve got to go now, who knows were they’ll send us next?” Buffy looked into Faith’s eyes, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life as a lab rat?”

Faith shook her head her dark curls bouncing around her worried face.

“Here,” Faith took a firm hold on Buffy, “let me help.”

“Thanks,” Buffy smiled weakly, “come on lets get out of here.”

0=0=0=0

“Hey!” Brightman called as she noticed the girls trying to sneak out of the infirmary, “get back into bed this instant!”

“What the…!” O’Neill moved to intercept the girls as they headed for the door which stood open only a couple of yards away.

Pushing Buffy towards the door, Faith turned to face the general-guy just as her slayer senses went on overload, the monster was back.

“Look out!” Faith yelled as she pushed the general to one side and she felt the noisome weight of the bloodsucking creature land on top of her.

“FAITH!” Buffy held herself up by leaning against the wall, she looked around frantically for a weapon.

The monster or whatever it was beginning to become redly visible again as it started to suck Faith dry. Faith still fought on from under the creature but her struggles were already getting weaker and weaker by the moment, if Buffy didn’t do something soon her friend would be dead. As she searched for a weapon all Buffy could hear was the insane tittering coming from the creature as it sucked on Faith, she certainly didn’t hear the soldiers running down the corridor towards the infirmary in response to the alarm set off by Dr Brightman.

Staggering into a trolley, Buffy’s hand came into contact with the handle of a scalpel. Her fingers wrapping themselves around the weapon, Turning, she hurled herself at the creature. Landing on top of it she felt the strange sucker like appendages attach themselves to her and bite into her flesh. In reply she slashed at the creature eliciting a strange high pitched scream from its loathsome mouths. The creature turned all its attention onto to Buffy; she might have saved Faith but only at the cost of her own life.

0=0=0=0

Standing in the doorway to the infirmary an airman pointed his Zat at the struggling creature on the floor. He couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting the kid that was slashing at the monster with what looked like a scalpel. Suddenly he found himself being pushed to one side and the Zat was snatched from his hand. Firing at the struggling mass on the floor, O’Neill watched as the Zat momentarily stunned the creature and knocked the two girls out completely.

“GET THOSE KIDS OUTTA THERE!” he ordered.

The SF’s moved in and dragged Faith from under the creature and Buffy from the creatures vile embrace. The creature lay and quivered as it wailed eerily. Once everyone was clear, O’Neill fired again and again. He had to Zat the creature four or five times before it finally disintegrated.

0=0=0=0

**General O’Neill’s Office, Stargate Command, two days later.**

Holding the sheet of paper up in front of him O’Neill read over what he’d written;

“ _…and so I regretfully submit my resignation. And to be clear, the regret is not so much about the resigning part…but the fact that I was deluded enough to think I had possessed even one iota of the ability to fill your sizeable and shiny shoes._ ”

He was just about to pick up his pen and sign his letter of resignation (which had taken him nearly three days to write) when there was a soft knock on his door.

“Come,” O’Neill called setting both letter and pen to one side.

The door opened to admit Colonel Carter and Doctors Jackson and Brightman, he gestured for them to take the seats he’d set out in front of his desk in preparation for this meeting. Once everyone had settled down and got comfortable he turned to look at Carter.

“Colonel Carter?” he invited her to speak.

“Right sir,” Carter gathered her thoughts for a moment, “First the Gate is up and running. Once we had the power back on line it was a simple case of rebooting the control systems and…” Carter hesitated; she’d been about to go into a more technical explanation of what she’d done but she could see the general’s eyes were beginning to glaze over, she smiled resignedly and changed the subject. “Doctor Lee got a handle on that plant thing,” she explained reminding herself to keep it simple, “something about weed-killer.”

“Weed-killer?” O’Neill asked puzzled; Carter just smiled and shrugged her shoulders, O’Neill gave a mental shrug and changed the subject, “And what about getting our two guests home to…”O’Neill paused, “...to wherever it is they came from?”

“Well sir,” Carter shifted slightly in her chair, she hated to report failure, “you understand I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix the gate, sir.”

“Yeah, yeah,” O’Neil gestured for her to get on with her report.

“But, even before that,” Carter hung her head for an instant before continuing, “to be honest I wasn’t having very much success. It sounds like they got here using something like, I can only describe as a…well, a Quantum Mirror Transporter.”

“A what!?” O’Neill looked up from his doodle pad.

“It seems obvious to me that they came from some alternate reality, but,” Carter paused for dramatic effect, “they’re not showing any signs of degradation from being in the wrong reality, sir. It’s…it’s like they’re clones of the originals made so they can exist in this reality.”

O’Neill raised an eyebrow inviting Carter to go on; or maybe he was only pretending to understand what she was talking about.

“It could be some sort of Ancient technology that we’ve not encountered before,” Carter shook her head in frustration, “or it could be magic…who knows?”

Letting the silence stretch for just a moment too long, O’Neill realised Carter had stopped talking, he turned his gaze onto Daniel.

“Daniel?” he invited.

“Um, yeah, Jack,” Daniel adjusted his glasses and took a deep breath, “I’ve spent several hours talking to both Buffy and Faith. They’re both still claiming that they’re actually young women in their early twenties and their present form is some sort of accident. I get the feeling that Buffy thinks this is somehow our fault.”

O’Neill was about to ask why the girl thought that but was silenced by a helpless shrug from Daniel.

“Their home reality,” Daniel continued, “would appear to be not unlike our own with a similar level of technology; however both girls claim a belief in magic, vampires and monsters in general…”

“That could be a mistaken belief that Extra-terrestrials are demons,” Carter pointed out.

“Ah yes,” Daniel held up a finger as he made his point, “I thought of that, but Buffy claims to have fought at least one Extra-terrestrial creature,” Daniel pulled a note book from a pocket in his fatigues, “she referred to it as some sort of demon. It’s really interesting, you see…”

“Yeah so how are the girls?” O’Neill turned to Dr Brightman before Daniel could get stared on a lecture about sociological development in similar societies or something.

“Surprisingly well, sir,” Dr Brightman smiled, “after I’d given them blood transfusions to replace that taken from them by the creature they appear to have recovered extremely quickly. The injuries they received in both their encounters with the creature are almost fully healed, and what’s more there’s minimal scaring.” Brightman laughed quietly, “I’d say that by tomorrow they’ll be making another escape attempt.”

“Yeah, what about that,” O’Neill turned back to Daniel.

“Yeah,” Daniel looked up at Jack, “Buffy doesn’t trust the military, she seems to think we’re messing with things we don’t understand and we should leave it to the professionals…”

“Meaning her and Faith?” Carter rolled her eyes.

“Um, yeah,” Daniel agreed, “Faith is much more relaxed about it…in fact Faith seems much more relaxed about everything…” Daniel paused and looked uncomfortable, “...and if she didn’t keep making passes at every male that comes within a couple of feet of her…I think she thinks it’s funny, I’d say she was the more stable of the two.”

“So,” O’Neill looked at each of his officers and friends in turn, “what do I do with them?”

“Sir,” Carter was the first to speak, “You can’t be considering trying to send them home! First I’ve no idea how to go about it; second, we’d be missing a great opportunity to study them. Find out how they heal so quickly, what makes them so strong, what…”

The room grew silent as Carter stopped talking as she realised what she was saying.

“Sam,” Daniel turned to look at his friend and colleague, “if we did what I think you’re suggesting, we’d be no better than the Goa’uld.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Dr Brightman began angrily, “but Dr Jackson is correct, they’re just children, whatever they might claim. It would be immoral to use them as lab rats.”

“Okay,” O’Neill held up his hands in a placating gesture, “it’s my problem…but I’m not making any decision about anything until I’ve found out what Buffy and Faith want to do.”

0=0=0=0

**The Infirmary, Stargate Command.**

“What d’y’think?” Faith asked Buffy as she watched the general-guy leave the infirmary, “Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.”

Buffy said nothing, she just crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

“Oh come on,” Faith pleaded, “think about it, it’ll be great.”

Still Buffy remained silent.

“Look,” a little panic was entering Faith’s voice as she saw an opportunity start to slip from her fingers, “you had a nice mom an’ dad, right?”

Buffy turned her head away from Faith for a moment.

“Okay, so your dad divorced your mom and disappeared off to Europe with his secretary,” Faith shrugged, “I just wish I knew who my dad was!”

Buffy looked back at Faith and her face softened…slightly.

“Hey,” Faith grinned, “you can’t tell me you’ve never thought about doing school over, but this time without all the teen angst…vampires, demons and old guys from the watcher's council.”

“Angst?” Buffy raised an eyebrow.

“See,” Faith explained, “like I say, I’ve been trying to improve m’self…y’see I never went to school much after I was…well after I was the age I look now.

“I don’t know,” Buffy wriggled on her bed and tried to frown harder, but there was a slight smile forming at the edge of her mouth, “these military guys can’t be trusted…they want to test us…how can we be sure they’re telling us the truth about not being able to send us home?”

“Okay,” Faith was starting to lose her temper now, “yeah, they want to test us, but only once every six months or so. I mean wouldn’t you in their position?” Faith scratched her head, “As for not being able to send us back…do you know how we got here?”

“Yeah, ‘spose,” Buffy admitted grudgingly.

“We’d be the coolest girls in school,” Faith tempted.

“We?” Buffy grinned for a moment, her inner cheerleader coming out to play after nearly ten years, “Don’t you mean, I’d be the coolest girl in school?”

“Whatever,” Faith conceded the point, (but she had the tattoo, now how cool would that be?), “then there’s the allowance and the college fund,” Faith had never thought about going to college, she’d never actually wanted to but now she wasn’t so sure, “See, you’d be able to finish school an’ everything.”

“Okay,” Buffy nodded her head slowly, “you’ve convinced me, but…” pausing for a moment Buffy wondered if it was all too good to be true, “we stay together, we don’t let them split us up, but…we have separate rooms.”

“Cool,” Faith sighed with relief.

Buffy sobered for a moment and all thoughts of being able to do school and college again without all the crap she’d had to deal with first time round fled from her mind, “What about home?”

“They’ll manage,” Faith reached out and took Buffy’s hand in her own; it was okay for her she didn’t have family, but Buffy, “You’ll get over it.”

“Yeah,” Buffy sighed, “maybe…”

0=0=0=0

**General O’Neill’s Office, Stargate Command.**

It was nearly the end of the day, Carter was doing something ‘Carter-like’ in her lab. Daniel had gone off to talk with Buffy and Faith some more, and the two girls had agreed to be ‘adopted’ by a military couple. The plant thing was dead and Teal’c had thwarted a plan by Ba’al to plant a doctored ZPM in the Antarctic Base and blow up the planet.

Not a bad day’s work, he congratulated himself. Picking up his letter of resignation he read through it once more. Lifting his pen he hesitated for a moment before writing; _Never mind._ , he signed it and placed it in his ‘out’ tray.

0=0=0=0

**Lord Min’s Mothership.**

Standing in the false god's throne room, Nak’Aard acknowledged the cheers of his fellow Jaffa. The revolution when it came had been swift and decisive; although Lord Min’s forces had numbered slightly more than the rebels, they were slaves following their master. Nak’Aard’s followers were free Jaffa fighting for their freedom and the freedom of their people.

Now they could return to Phuk-ceet and liberate the Jaffa there, once Phuk-ceet had been freed the rest of Min’s dominions would capitulate and follow the cause of freedom. But first he had one last task that needed his attention. Acknowledging the cheers of his followers one last time, Nak’Aard turned and strode into what had been Min’s private chambers; on the floor knelt Tefen guarded by his brother Wel’Aard and two other Jaffa warriors.

“Please don’t kill me!” Begged the very minor and extremely frightened Goa’uld.

“Why should I not?” Nak’Aard twirled the staff weapon in his hands and pointed it at Tefen’s head.

“Um,” Tefen thought very hard, harder than he’s thought about anything in his life, “um, well, ah…” Tefen hesitated before blurting out, “...you need me!”

“Why?” Nak’Aard let the muzzle of his staff weapon point slightly to one side of Tefen’s head.

“Look,” Tefen gasped clutching at straws, “Min collected all sorts of weird tech stuff, most of it is useless but there’s some…”

Tefen left the sentence unfinished; he didn’t need to complete it he could see the calculating look in Nak’Aard’s eyes.

“I can get it working for you,” Tefen said softly, “I’m a lot better at this stuff than I ever let on to Min,” he lied. “If it hadn’t been for me, Min would have taken one of those Hoc’tar as his host and you’d have never won your freedom.”

Nak’Aard thought about this for a long minute, the Hoc’tar would have been more difficult to defeat and Tefen might have his uses.

“Indeed.” Nak’Aard said after a long pause, “You may live for now, but if you ever betray me or the Jaffa people…”

“NO!” Tefen cried, “All hail the Jaffa people is what I say,” Tefen was very good at gauging which way the wind was blowing, “I’ve always secretly been on your side Lord Nak’Aard.”

“Indeed,” Nak’Aard turned away from the Goa’uld and walked out of the chamber.

Of course he didn’t believe a word of it; it was the nature of Goa’uld to conquer and control. Tefen would take close watching, but until the day came when he tried to betray the Jaffa he would serve them. As Nak’Aard strode along the corridor towards the ship’s bridge, he wondered what had happened to the two Hoc’tar women Tefen had tried to acquire for his now dead master. He hoped they were safe and well, after all it wasn’t their fault they were going to be used by the Goa’uld system lord as his new host. Silently, Nak’Aard wished them long life and happiness.

THE END.


End file.
